Dr Hall,
I recently had my six front teeth, from canine to canine, crowned. Doing this it closed a large gap between my two front teeth. Now I can’t speak clearly and because of the closure and the stress of trying to learn how to speak again my jaw and neck hurt all the time. Also, my mouth stays dry and my lips are numb what could this be caused by?? Also is it possible to get the space put back between the two new crowns on my front teeth?? Your advice would be appreciated.
– Paul from Georgia

Paul,
This sounds like a serious problem that needs to be addressed.
I am pretty confident your troubles have nothing to do with closing the gap between your two front teeth, but are because of other problems with the crowns. I closed many such gaps in my practice and never had any adverse feedback like you are giving me—no speech issues, pain, or dry mouth. It sounds to me that your dentist opened your bite too far.
It could be that your crowns are too thick and/or too long. This could cause a problem called lip incompetence which is the failure of the lips to close naturally, without effort when your teeth bite together. If your bite is correct, when you put your teeth together, your lips should naturally fall into place and be closed without your having to think about it. Your dry mouth and the numbness in your lips suggest to me that you may have this lip incompetence.
Also, if your crowns are too thick, they could throw off your bite leading to pain in your jaw and neck, besides causing speech problems.

Both the pain and the dry mouth are serious problems. The pain issue is obvious. The dry mouth less so but is just as important because it can lead to rampant tooth decay. The washing and buffering action of your saliva, plus the antibodies it contains are critical in fighting tooth decay. Don’t let this go on.

You really need a second opinion. I’m suspecting that your dentist got in over his or her head in doing this many crowns simultaneously on you. That’s my guess. I’d go to one of our recommended cosmetic dentists to evaluate the result and see what needs to be done to fix it.
– Dr. Hall

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About David A. Hall

Dr. David Hall was one of the first 40 accredited cosmetic dentists in the world. He practiced cosmetic dentistry in Iowa, and in 1990 earned his accreditation with the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. He is now president of Infinity Dental Web, a company in Mesa, Arizona that does complete Internet marketing for dentists.

Dr. Hall,
I am debating on going to Costa Rica to get my 12 crowns replaced. I have 6 on the top and 6 on the bottom. In Costa Rica they do everything in a lab and it takes two weeks ( So I have to stay 2 weeks, which isn’t a bad thing except the time I can go it will be raining). I am just curious what my options are here in Arizona since I just moved here. I am looking for natural-looking teeth and would like a dentist that doesn’t make my teeth look like they came from a cookie cutter so to speak. In Costa Rica I can get all of my teeth done for around $6000. Not including the travel and hotels etc. Is there anything comparable to that here in Arizona that you know of?
– Tanya from Arizona
Tanya,
I have a question for you before you go to Costa Rica to have your crowns done. Do you think there is any possibility that anything could go wrong in the process of getting twelve crowns?

I’ll give you the answer to that question–yes, there are any number of things that could go wrong. Let me list some of them for you, off the top of my head:

These are the first twelve things that came to mind, of problems I have either seen or patients have told me about when they had multiple crowns done. It isn’t an exhaustive list.

And then here is a link to an earlier blog post I wrote about dentistry in Costa Rica. A woman wrote to me about crown and porcelain veneer work she had done there. She ended up having four of these things on the list go wrong, and some things that aren’t on my list. Another dentist told her that what was done to her by this Costa Rica dentist was criminal negligence. But when she tried to get satisfaction, SHE ended up being the person in legal trouble, because of the corrupt legal system in Costa Rica. She has an estimate of $35,000 to fix the damage this dentist caused.

Even with excellent dental care, with that many crowns there is often something that will go wrong during the treatment. It appears that if that happens to you in Costa Rica, you’ll end up stuck.

If you want to save some money and you’re in Arizona, one option could be to go to Dr. Isaías Íñiguez. He is actually AACD accredited and has a practice in Los Algodones, Mexico, just across the border from Yuma, Arizona. He charges Mexican fees for what I believe is high quality cosmetic dentistry. Check him out.

– Dr. Hall

Do you have a comment or a question or anything else to add? We’d love to hear from you. Enter your comment below.

About David A. Hall

Dr. David Hall was one of the first 40 accredited cosmetic dentists in the world. He practiced cosmetic dentistry in Iowa, and in 1990 earned his accreditation with the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. He is now president of Infinity Dental Web, a company in Mesa, Arizona that does complete Internet marketing for dentists.